£450m investment for regional jobs and growth
The first round of the Regional Growth Fund (RGF) will see more public investment support 50 bids by companies and partnerships across Britain. They demonstrated how they would create jobs and a high level of economic growth in their local communities over the coming years.
The RGF is a £1.4bn fund which is designed to encourage enterprise, growth and jobs in the private sector and support areas and communities that are dependent on the public sector. The Government expects over 27,000 jobs to be directly created and safeguarded, with close to a further 100,000 jobs in associated supply chains and local economies.
The successful bids include the development of a former eye hospital in Manchester into a biomedical centre of excellence; the construction of a manufacturing plant on Teesside to develop resins for food and drink packaging; development of a cutting edge factory & R&D laboratory for Holroyd Precision Ltd in Rochdale, and a proposal from General Motors to build the next-generation Vivaro van in Luton.
The second round of the fund opens to bids from 12th April 2011 with a closing date of noon on 1 July 2011. This round will aim to allocate the remainder of nearly £1 billion. A third round may follow but this would be very small and would aim to commit any remaining unallocated money. Bids will be accepted from private bodies and public private partnerships across England on a challenge basis. The fund envisage bidding partnerships that include a combination of private sector players, SMEs and social enterprises coming together with public partners. In particular it is expected that Local Enterprise Partnerships will both bid to the Fund and play a role in coordinating bids across areas and communities.
While all areas of England are eligible to bid for the RGF some parts of the country where there is currently high employment, low-levels of deprivation and a vibrant private sector may struggle to demonstrate how they meet the objective to rebalance those areas and communities dependent on the public sector.
The Regional Growth Fund will provide a mixture of direct support for private sector investments and support for some basic infrastructure that removes the barriers that trigger private sector led economic growth as part of a wider investment.
Department for Business Innovation and Skills (BIS) will be running a limited series of Roadshows across the country from the middle of May to early June to provide prospective bidders with more information on the RGF. Details of the Road shows will be published as they become available.
For more information and to apply visit:
http://www.bis.gov.uk/policies/economic-development/regional-growth-fund#round2